Opinion: The USS New York returns some of 9/11 to the city

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This item isn’t really about politics, although it’s obviously related.

We were struck yesterday, amid all the hoo-hah around here too about today’s elections and politics, by the solemn, yet celebratory cruise into a gray New York harbor of the Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship, the USS New York.

In case you haven’t heard, the ship’s keel includes more than seven tons of recycled steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center on 9/11. And the ship’s crest carries the motto ‘Never Forget.’ There’s a video below of the ship’s recent sea trials.

The city had warned denizens of lower Manhattan in advance. So the ship paused in the same Hudson River that had guided the terrorist-flown planes to....

... their targets. And the crew fired a 21-gun salute.

The new vessel, which carries a complement of 700 Marines and assorted aircraft and hovercraft, will stay in New York City a few days. But its image, we suspect, will live on a good while longer in the minds of many who witnessed those awful hours and all that has gone on at home and abroad during the 2,975 days since.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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